Organized, structured religions all but remove god from the
equation. You confess your sins to a clergy member, go to elaborate
churches to worship, told what to pray and when to pray it.

All those factors remove you from god.

Spirituality is born in a person and
develops in the person. It may be kick started by a religion, or it
may be kick started by a revelation. Spirituality extends to all
facets of a person's life. Spirituality is chosen while religion is
often times forced.

True spirituality is something that is found deep within oneself. It
is your way of loving, accepting and relating to the world and
people around you. It cannot be found in a church or by believing in
a certain way.

Consider the following in favor of the spiritual path:

There is not one religion, but
hundreds

There is only one type of
spirituality

Religion is for those who want
to continue rituals and the formality

Spirituality is for those who
want to reach the Spiritual Ascent without dogmas

Religion is for those who are
asleep

Spirituality is for those who
are awake

Religion is for those that
require guidance from others

Spirituality is for those that
lend ears to their inner voice

Religion has a dogmatic and
unquestionable assembly of rules that need to be followed
without question

Spirituality invites you to
reason it all, to question it all and to decide your actions
and assume the consequences

Religion threatens and terrifies

Spirituality gives you inner
peace

Religion speaks of sin and of
fault

Spirituality encourages "living
in the present" and not to feel remorse for which has
already passed. Lift your spirit and learn from errors

Religion represses humanity, and
returns us to a false paradigm

Spirituality transcends it all
and makes you true to yourself

Religion is instilled from
childhood, like the soup you do not you want to take

Spirituality is the food that
you you seek, that satisfies you and is pleasant to the
senses

Religion is not God

Spirituality is infinite
consciousness and all that is. It is God

Religion invents

Spirituality discovers

Religion does not investigate
and does not question

Spirituality questions
everything

Religion is based on humanity,
an organization with rules

Spirituality is DIVINE, WITHOUT
rules

Religion is cause for division

Spirituality is cause for union

Religion seeks you so that you
create

Spirituality causes you to seek

Religion continues the teachings
of a sacred book

Spirituality seeks the
sacredness in all the books

Religion is fed fear

Spirituality is fed confidence

Religion lives you in your
thoughts

Spirituality lives in your
conscience

Religion is in charge of the "to
do"

Spirituality is in charge of the
"to BE"

Religion is a dialectic

Spirituality is logic

Religion feeds the ego

Spirituality makes you transcend

Religion makes you renounce
yourself to the world

Spirituality makes you live with
God, not to renounce Him

Religion is adoration

Spirituality is meditation

Religion is to continue adapting
to the psychology of a template

Spirituality is individuality

Religion dreams of glory and
paradise

Spirituality makes you live it
here and now

Religion lives in the past and
in the future

Spirituality lives in the
present, in the here and now

Religion lives in the
confinement of your memory

Spirituality is LIBERTY in
AWARENESS

Religion believes in the eternal
life

Spirituality makes you conscious
of all that is

Religion gives you promises for
the after-life

Spirituality gives you the light
to find God in your inner self, in this life, in the
present, in the here and the now

There are a dozen attributes to life, to
building a positive attitude, embedded in the very word
'Spirituality'.

Each letter of the word 'spirituality'
has a representing meaning.

'S' stands for
Seva, to think
beyond yourself and reach out to others. Seva is to be
selfless in your thoughts and way of life. Most of us are
sevikas or sevaks in some form or other; for we know that
the joy of giving is far greater than the joy of receiving.

'P' signals two aspects, the
first of which is the passage of life. None of us are
immortal.

So on this passage of life as William Penn, the
poet wrote,

"I expect to pass
through the life but once, if there be any kindness
I can show, let me do it now, as I shall not pass
this way once again."

And even as you do so, please do
it with a sense of perseverance for perseverance can move
mountains. So run your own race in very act of life.

Moving on to the three 'I's in
the word 'spirituality', these reflect three distinct
values.

Integrity, Inner Voice and Inspire - be inspired and
inspire others.

Integrity is character. Inner voice is the
stairway to spirituality as it always goads you to do what
is right, to live by one's conscience and by values.
Following this stretch is inspirational for you and others
as well.

'R' is to learn to smell the
roses on your way. Being positive is so restorative. You
will never feel that you are ever in the midst of a storm.
Every situation can then be faced with equanimity and
fortitude. For one knows that this, too, shall pass.

'T' stands for transcendence, so
transcend with inner reflection, meditation, yoga,
self-control and compassion. The second 'T' says, if you
practice these creative ways of looking at life, you will
surely attain tranquility and be at peace with yourself.

'U' is all about the
universality and oneness of humankind. On realizing this,
increasingly you are able to brush aside prejudices.
Differences cease to matter. Aren't each one of us just a
speck in the universe?

'A' is for acceptance. Accept
yourself and others unconditionally. 'A' also entails the
total negation of arrogance, and with humility being the ACE
in your chosen field.

And this brings us to the letter
'L' that reminds you to have the largeness of heart to
remember only the goodness of people and blanket out any
pain or hurt that is encountered in varying degrees of
relationships. The past and future are of no relevance as we
cannot control or predict either. Most important, learn to
travel light. The Moment is now. Life is too short, so
cherish every moment.

'T', the second last letter in
spirituality, stands for Trust.

Something that Steve Jobs
would say:

"You can't connect the
dots looking forward; you can only connect them
looking backwards. So you have to trust that the
dots will somehow connect in your future. You have
to trust in something - your gut, destiny, life,
karma, whatever. This approach has never let me
down, and it has made all the difference in my
life."

How true!

And finally - 'Y' - the last
letter, stands for You - and for me, too. Only YOU can make
this happen.